Red Foxes

Red foxes are widespread in Victoria and have been present in inner Melbourne since the 1930s and have adapted to become an established part of suburbia.

They can cause a nuisance by harassing domestic animals, eating pet food, raiding rubbish bins, defecating or digging in gardens, and chewing infrastructure such as garden hoses and irrigation systems.

Foxes prey upon native and domesticated animals including unprotected poultry, rabbits, guinea pigs and aviary birds and can spread parasites and diseases such as mange and distemper to domestic animals and pets.

Red Foxes are a Declared Pest

Foxes have been declared a pest animal under the Catchment and Land Protection Act (1994). Under this law, you are legally responsible to prevent the spread of and as far as possible and remove foxes from your property.

Foxes are common in urban environments and they have a higher population density than in rural areas. They are highly mobile and can travel up to 10 – 15 km per night.

Foxes quickly re-invade an area after baiting, shooting or trapping.

Foxes can have a number of dens or hiding places at different times during the day and may not regularly return to any one den. The dens may be under houses, sheds, outbuildings or in hollow logs, rock piles, drainpipes, car bodies, under blackberry patches. In fact, foxes may be living in your backyard or garage without you knowing it. They are nocturnal and most active during the evening and early morning. They are also timid and will flee when disturbed.

They are not associated with transmission of disease in humans and do not present a significant public health issue.

Signs of Red Fox Activity

Apart from seeing a fox in your garden at dusk, dawn or during the night, there are the signs of fox activity to look out for.

Signs of Red Fox Activity

A pungent, musky smell (or fox smell) around your house or in your garden
Droppings in prominent places such as garden furniture and on shoes left outside
Trampled plants
Chewed up shoes or toys
Several deep facial bites and deep punctures around dead bird necks. Birds such as poultry may only have the head and neck eaten, large feathers are chewed off rather than plucked out.
Half-eaten fruit (if you have fruit trees or bushes)
Damage to fences, wire mesh, hose pipes, polythene tunnels
Overturned rubbish bins with rubbish strewn about
Your garden looking like a freshly ploughed field. Foxes will dig up entire gardens if there is an abundance of grubs.

Preventing Red Fox Activity

Red foxes forage around rubbish bins, picnic sites, compost heaps and also feed on fruit and pet food left outside. They prey on small animals. A mature fox is capable of killing up to 3000 animals a year including native wildlife, domestic fowl, livestock and guinea pigs.

The best way to make Whitehorse fox-free is to make the area unsuitable for fox survival. It is more effective to eliminate the attraction to foxes to be around your property than trying to remove the foxes.

Discouraging Red Foxes from your Property

Lock up chickens, ducks, guinea pigs and pet rabbits in in secure, roofed coops, particularly at night. If a roofed coop is not possible, use 1.5 metres high fences with an outward facing flexible or rigid overhang to prevent foxes scaling the fence. Wire netting should be either buried at least 450 mm underground or attached to a concrete or wooden floor to prevent red foxes digging under the coop fence. The wire fence and roof netting needs to be at least 0.9 mm gauge with the mesh size no larger than 40–50 mm to prevent red foxes pushing through into the coop. Remove anything that foxes could use to hide when sneaking up on poultry. This includes tall grass, junk, machinery and timber
Clean up food scraps, pet food left outside and excess fruit dropped by fruit trees
Always cover your compost heap or use a compost bin
Never try to make foxes pets by feeding them
Remove blackberry and other weed thickets, which provide cover for foxes
Contact a pest exterminator to remove fox dens if you discover any on your property
Do not feed wildlife
Don’t leave objects for foxes to climb over onto neighbouring properties
Restrict access to underneath the house
Remove rubbish lying around and secure bin lids
If you see a fox in the area, let your neighbours know so they can take action.

Controlling Red Fox Activity

Urban fox management is quite challenging as the only effective method of management is trapping because baiting and shooting foxes are not appropriate. Baiting is prohibited in the urban environment due to the potential poisoning of domestic/wild animals. There is a risk when shooting foxes in an urban area due to the possibility of shooting a person or domestic/wild animal. Trapping is not very cost-effective as the technique is labour intensive and foxes quickly re-invade from surrounding areas.


Location	Responsibility	Contact/Action
Your Property	The resident	Report red fox sightings on the Feralscan website. Residents recording their sightings on FeralScan will provide data on red fox hot-spots which will help inform the development of the Australian Pest Animal Strategy. Try using animal deterrent scents or installing movement sensor ultrasonic noise devices or a movement sensor water sprinkler. Otherwise, contact a pest controller to have the fox removed.
Your Neighbour’s Property	Your neighbour	Speak to the property owner about your observations. Direct them to this page for information.
Council Property	Council	Contact Council

More Information

More information about the red fox:

The Agriculture Victoria pest section.

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Red Foxes are a Declared Pest

Signs of Red Fox Activity

Preventing Red Fox Activity

Controlling Red Fox Activity

More Information